Can Job Applicants Sue Recruiters? Under South African law, it is illegal to price-fix wages. Requests for payslips are illegal. The public is warned to report this practice and take legal action. This infograph lists recruitment behavior that can have legal consequences.
DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR PAYSLIP TO RECRUITERS. REPORT THEM.
Sue Recruiters
Post questions and comments below if you don’t understand. It’s vital you know this stuff in order to protect yourself.
Sue Recruiters: Employers Must Compete Fairly for Talent
The Competition Act prevents practices infringing upon the rights of South Africans to fairly compete for jobs and for businesses to compete for talent.
From the Act:
The people of South Africa recognise:
That apartheid and other discriminatory laws and practices of the past resulted in excessive concentrations of ownership and control within the national economy, inadequate restraints against anti competitive trade practices, and unjust restrictions on full and free participation in the economy by all South Africans.This paragraph was amended to its present form by section 22 of The Competition Second Amendment Act, 2000.
That the economy must be open to greater ownership by a greater number of South Africans.
That credible competition law, and effective structures to administer that law, are necessary for an efficient functioning economy.
That an efficient, competitive economic environment, balancing the interests of workers, owners and consumers and focused on development, will benefit all South Africans.
WHAT’S SIGNIFICANT FOR RECRUITMENT?: Sue Recruiters
The act aims to shift us from
- discriminatory laws and practices
- excessive concentrations of ownership and control within the national economy
- inadequate restraints against anti-competitive trade practices
- unjust restrictions on full and free participation in the economy by all South Africans
Yet refusal to include pay information has become pervasive practice creating opportunity for gender, race and poverty discrimination. I include ‘poverty discrimination’ as poor people are subjected to low-wage offers because of their poverty – which is also usually racially bound.
Firms and recruiters exert unfair power and information advantages during recruitment thereby maintaining a tight-fisted dominance over an applicants bargaining power.
Sue Recruiters Sue Employers
Firms and recruiters demand pay slips in order to match or only slightly improve a wage offer. In this way an applicant’s rate is fixed, no matter how unfair their former wages were. By not competing for talent by offering competitive wages, inequality is perpetuated.
Although the Constitution States ‘Everyone is entitled to fair labour practice’ insufficient regulations ensure that recruiters comply with the Constitution and the Competition Act.
The Act continues by laying out the following key objectives
IN ORDER TO –
- provide all South Africans equal opportunity to participate fairly in the national economy;
- achieve a more effective and efficient economy in South Africa;
- provide for markets in which consumers have access to, and can freely select, the quality and variety of goods and services they desire;
- create greater capability and an environment for South Africans to compete effectively in international markets;
- restrain particular trade practices which undermine a competitive economy;
- regulate the transfer of economic ownership in keeping with the public interest;
- establish independent institutions to monitor economic competition;
and- give effect to the international law obligations of the Republic.
